Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Herb infused oils are among the few special things that I love to have in my kitchen. Making them at home is ridiculously easy (and I am guilty of presenting an almost no recipe today) and they liven up the simple little things.

I had made the Marinated Feta Cheese from Tasty Palettes and was led to the infused oil in her blog even before that. I used to infuse the olive oil with basil more than I did with rosemary, but her picture looked too pretty and all of a sudden I was getting bundles of rosemary from a friend’s bush and I fell in love with the rosemary and never looked back. Having a bottle of the aromatic oil at hand is therapeutic for me and it also offers convenient ways to add exciting flavors to even the most simple meals. The infused oil is not just a treasure for the taste but is a piece of culinary artwork too. See how beautiful it looks?

The olive oil may be infused with any herbs (sage, basil etc) ; citrus zest, crushed peppercorns, black pepper, red pepper, sun dried tomatoes marry well with the herbs and the oil. Use whatever you like best. The oil may be infused cold or warm. I have done it both ways, and I feel when the oil is warmed, it takes on the flavor of the herbs quicker than when it is cold.

UPDATED: Some of you have been having issues with the olive oil getting cloudy. While it has never happened to me till date, I do see it as a problem. Do scroll down in the “comment list” and read what Grant has to say about this and refer to the website http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/infusing-olive-oil.

Do read the comment by DeniseK and make this at your own risk. Many other comments have useful information on this, so please take time to go over them.

Using fresh herbs increases the risk of botulism. You may dry the herbs in a dehydrator or microwave or oven to remove any trace of water.

Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Wash the rosemary sprigs and dry them really well; there should not be any water on the rosemary sprigs.

Pour your olive oil into a sauce pan and heat it over a low flame until it is just warm, for only 1-2 minutes. Let the oil cool to room temperature for about 5-7 minutes. (If you do not want to heat the oil, it is okay too. Use the extra virgin oil unheated and pour in the bottle).

Take a clean dry bottle and place the crushed pepper and the sprigs and pour oil into it. Cool the bottle for a while and then seal the bottle with a cork or lid. Set the bottle aside in a dry cool place where there is no direct sunlight for about a week. I stick my bottle in the refrigerator.

(If you are keeping your oil in the refrigerator, you might see it get cloudy or the part of it will look like it has lumped up. It should clear up once left out in the room temperature).

Great idea! I used to have some store-bought basil oil and loved how I could quickly inject flavor into whatever I was cooking with that. Homemade infused oil is even better (and cheaper!). Thanks for the tip.

This is so pretty Soma! And I think the best best use of infused oil is to gift them. People really love you for that;)

Only if I had a friend with bushes of rosemary! Its quite difficult to get rosemary around here and my best bet is to freeze it to have it all round the year. So I do with garlic and chilly flavored oils mostly and sometimes basil!

I used to make infused oil with chiles and always had it on hand, but I stopped at some point and haven’t done it in ages. Thanks for the reminder about infused oils! Your oil with rosemary is a thing of beauty.

FYI I followed this recipe using fresh rosemary (but no peppercorns) as gifts for wedding. We made 300 of them total. It was great until 2 weeks after the fact ALL of the rosemary developed white powdery Mildew. I thought all the herbs were pretty dry (or rather, had no moisture on them) when they were all put in yet everything is wasted now it seems. Do you have any thoughts on how it could have happened? TIA.

That is really unfortunate! I am so sorry. Making 300 bottles of this is putting in the effort I cannot even imagine. The only reason for mildew, that I can think of is the moisture, either from the herbs or the bottle/jar (if the bottles were still warm.. condensation could create moisture inside.. I am assuming) or they were not all submerged and had air/moisture contact in the bottles. Even if one leaf had moisture, the mold would start and spread. Again I am really sorry.

I made a few of these as gifts and I noticed the little leaves in the sprigs of rosemary are starting to turn black as they sit in the oil. Is this normal?

The leaves will turn a shade darker when they sit in the oil, but not right away. The photograph I had taken was right after I made it. But do make sure that they are not rotting. If they are soggy and fall off and soft and mushy to touch, it is probably a sign that they are not good.

I made this a couple of weeks ago & my olive oil is cloudy. Is it still ok, or did I do something wrong? It has been sitting in a dark cupboard so it is at room temp.

If it looks cloudy unfortunately it does not sound okay. As it sits, the leaves and oil will turn a darker shade, but not cloudy. Even a tiny bit of moisture can cause it to get cloudy.. it could be some drops of condensation in the bottle or even a few leaves. I do not think you did anything wrong, This is a tricky thing to do.

[...] bottle.Then I poured it into a sauce pan over medium heat. I roughly followed the instructions in this post by Soma over at her blog ecurry. I heated up the oil for a few minutes and then let it cool off [...]

I just tried this and 4 of them turned cloudy within a few hours, not all of them did however, bottles were all dry, no condensation, there are 3 other bottles that are just fine, the only thing I did differently was perhaps the heat of the oil as I had to use 2 pans, would this make a difference?

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what is going on here. I have done mine a few times ( actually I always have in my pantry), and so far they have all been good. There are some who have done it fine with this recipe, while some others have had it go bad, and I unfortunately I have no explanation for it I do not know why the pan would make a difference.. are the ones from one pan gone bad.. or just any 4? I really do not know. So sorry!

So I decided to try the cold infusion method with Rosemary. I cleaned the rosemary and dried it out for 3 days (patted with paper towels everyday and left at the window to catch the sun). I made sure the bottle I was pouring it into was clean and dry. The oil now sits in the refrigerator and its been 3 days. I noticed white clumps or what looked like white bubbles in the bottom and some floating in the oil. Is that normal? On the 2nd day I also added a little bit more oil to fill up the bottle more. Was that wrong? I figured since I never heated the oil to begin with it wouldn’t be a problem. Should I throw that batch out?

I am not sure what it is. When I keep mine in the refrigerator, it does get a little cloudy, but that is Olive Oil.. it clears up once I take it out and warms up. If it is going bad, it will probably not clear up once you keep it out.

Right, so the only thing I can say is that a lot of other website about infusing oil state to never ever use fresh herbs to infuse oil. If the herbs are not dried, the leaves do indeed contain moisture in them. In fact, infusing olive oil with fresh herbs is a perfect way to grow botulism bacteria (http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/infusing-olive-oil) Ways to avoid this seem to be to either use the oil quickly if using fresh herbs, to brine the water based ingredients, or to make sure you herbs are fully dried before using.

I was surprised by this myself to be honest. I just bought an oil infuser (basically a bottle with an insert for your herbs so they don’t get mixed in with the oil), and I was a bit confused about why it said to only use dry herbs. Now I understand why. I might suggest you recommend using it quickly or to dry out the sprigs of rosemary (like completely dry out, not just wash and dry) before infusing.

Thank you very much for the information. I will update the post so the readers go over your response!

Having just left my food safety re-certification class I just heard again about how dangerous it is to do your own infused oils. It is PRIME breeding for botulism, a potentially deadly disease. Please research this further and warn your readers. Infused vinegars do not present the same level of danger because of the acidity. I was terribly disappointed about this when I learned of it, since I love dipping oils, but it’s best to leave it to the pros, I’m afraid.

Thank you for all the information. I will update the post with a mention of your comment.. so people are aware of the consequences. I always make the infused oil (without garlic) and I have never had it go bad or got sick.

Thanks for all of the relevant information. In my dehydrator, I am drying rosemary, greek basil, oregano with whole coriander and whole peppercorns even as I type. Also, simmering olive oil with minced herbs including garlic and lemon rind which I intend to strain through cheesecloth and pour into sterilized bottles and cover with a cork. Also found the website that Grant referred to (olivesource.com/page/infusing-olive-oil) very helpful. Happy creating and enjoy!

If you thoroughly clean bottle, and the herb and heat the oil, it’s less likely to go cloudy or have any other issue. As long as you cap the bottle right after putting in all of the ingredients. Just think of your mom’s old canning recipes and how they even boiled the jars to make sure you were not going to introduce any bacteria into that canning project or jam. However, if you are in doubt, very few types of bacteria are halophilic (they don’t like salt and won’t grow in it). So, you could consider adding sea salt to your recipe, it should cut any bacterial growth to a minimum.

The rosemary and/or hot peppers should first get stuck in a pot of boiling water for 30-45 seconds. This kills any bacteria or spores that could be on the plants – just washing them does not cure the problem. Then dry them and let them sit out for a day. Then you can put them in sterilized jars and pour the oil over them. I keep it in the refrigerator. If the oil gets cloudy just take it out and leave it on the counter for an hour and it should return to its usual color.

With regards to cloudiness, it’s purely a heat problem. When most olive oils drop below a certain temperature (around 10degees Celsius) they can become cloudy. When they warm up during the day or in sunlight it should disappear. Lower quality olive oils will become cloudy at higher temps so try to use cold pressed olive oil for your infusions.

So I’m very excited to try this but after reading the comments – I’m a little confused. Should I just use dried herbs or take my own rosemary from the garden and microwave it? I’m thinking of boiling and then microwaving my herbs but I’m almost positive that will take away some of the flavor. Maybe I should just use dried herbs from the store?

I made some rosemary infused olive oil using home dried rosemary taken from the garden. After sitting in the oil for a few days, the rosemary started to have black spots appear and some turned all black. Does everyone else experience? I know this is a freak out, but that’s not botulism growing is it? I know bot. is really rare, but everyone talks about it so much I get scared when I make olive infusions.

I would say discard it right away. I am not sure what is happening but sounds like it is going bad and I would not use it. Read the other comments. A lot of others have had issues and I have put in a note in the post too. I do not have any solutions, but others have suggested some ways in the comments here to prevent it. Sorry!

the issue with clouding in the fridge is normal for olive oil, my guess is its all about the quality of he oil you are using did you know extensive testing has been done with olive oil products all over he world that show the majority of them are actually not even containing real olive oil? that’s the truth you can look that up. so first you need to find an all organic, GMO free, extra virgin olive oil not made in china or the US start with that and you should be ok

My oil turned cloudy right away too. I just reheated the oil and the rosemary springs in the oil over the stove until little bubbles appeared. Then poured the oil back into the bottles and popped the springs back in. Seems to have done the trick!

Use a dark bottle – green or brown – particularly if you live in a sunny climate. As UV light is very destructive to olive oil, it breaks it down faster and enough direct sunlight without a light filter will actually make it rancid. Luckily our ancestors figured out the solution here – dark coloured glass. Any previously store bought olive oil bottle (usually green) can be recycled for this purpose, or any good sized beer bottle (brown or green) thoroughly cleaned (and for aesthetic reasons all labels soaked off). It will make it harder to see the great looking rosemary or chilli inside but trust me it will last a lot longer.

DO NOT COPY!

Copyright:

All content on this blog, including
the photography and written text,
are our work, which means it is
copyrighted with All Rights Reserved.
No work from this blog
may be used for republishing
and for commercial purposes
without our permission.